Monday, June 8, 2015

Lawson excited for old schemes, new opportunities

Manny Lawson's ready to party like it's 2013.

The Buffalo Bills defensive end took more of a back-seat role last season under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, acting as relief for Pro Bowler Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes. That was a far cry from the prior year, when he logged a career high in tackles and saw nearly double the amount of snaps.

Now with Rex Ryan at the helm, the 30-year-old veteran is hoping the switch back to a mainly 3-4 scheme will yield more time on the field and hopefully some more opportunity for big plays.

"I think two years ago I was playing multiple positions and had multiple roles and so you really couldn’t focus on exactly where 91 was and you didn’t know if I was rushing or I was dropping," he said via BuffaloBills.com. "Last year I had someone on me all the time. With a different scheme and different roles opportunities present themselves."